One Pokemon's Name Was Changed Because it Sounded Like "Poop," and Other Amusing Anecdotes

We've occasionally wondered how Nintendo's localization team comes up with all the English names for the Pokemon that are designed in Japan, and it turns out they actually just lock themselves in a room with books of baby names and a thesaurus. This would go on for months, according to Nintendo's Seth McMahill, who was largely responsible for the translations of Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire and Pokemon Diamond/Pearl.

McMahill shared a few interesting anecdotes with Siliconera, the best of which involves coming up with the name for the creature that became Piplup, a water-based penguin. That name would have been "Piploop" if someone hadn't pointed out how much that sounded like "poop." To our ears, it's also onomatopoeia for the sound poop makes when it drops into the toilet. Lovely.

Another Pokemon, almost certainly Honchkrow, was almost named "Doncrowleone," after The Godfather.

“There are some other ones, where you’re just stumped,” McMahill also shared. “Like Lickilicky. A Pokémon with a giant tongue. Well, what do you name that, you know? All right, Lickilicky.”